Pletcher's Saratoga winners doing well; 'Ebby' banged up following Shuvee

Pletcher's Saratoga winners doing well; 'Ebby' banged up

following Shuvee

Trainer Todd Pletcher reported Sunday morning that both Grade 1 Coaching Club American

Oaks winner Princess of Sylmar and Grade 3 Shuvee Handicap victress Authenticity emerged

from their efforts in good order.

The duo swept the graded contests at Saratoga on Saturday for Pletcher, with

Princess of Sylmar romping by six lengths under Javier Castellano in the CCA

Oaks and Authenticity posting a length score in the Shuvee with John Velazquez

aboard. Authenticity was cross-entered to the Delaware Handicap on Saturday but

proved her connections chose the correct race in which to run her with the

victory.

Next up for Princess of Sylmar likely will be the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama on August 17

at Saratoga. Authenticity remains on target for the following weekend's Grade 1,

$600,000

Personal Ensign Invitational on August 25, where she will likely face dual

champion Royal Delta, who dominated the Del 'Cap by 10 3/4 lengths.

"Obviously, if the Royal Delta that ran yesterday shows up in the Personal

Ensign, we're all running for second," Pletcher stated. "We'll give it a try

anyway."

Trainer John Shirreffs said Sunday morning that Eblouissante emerged

from her last-place run in the Shuvee with minor injuries after acting up

in the starting gate.

"She got banged up, but it's all pretty superficial," the horseman

explained. "She broke

two teeth and grabbed herself in a couple spots on her legs, but nothing really

serious.

"I feel really lucky that she didn't seriously injure herself. I think that's a

credit to the assistant starter, who kept her from flipping over and getting

underneath the gate. It was a bad situation but not a tragedy."

Owned by Maverick Racing, the four-year-old half-sister to Horse of

the Year Zenyatta was making her stakes debut in the Shuvee, her first start in

189 days following an optional claiming victory on January 17 at Santa Anita.

Ridden by Rosie Napravnik, subbing for jockey Junior Alvarado who was banged up

earlier on Saturday's card, Eblouissante bumped with Moon Philly after leaving

the gate and ran at the back of the pack, finishing last of six.

"For her, it was (over at the start). She lost all her focus and everything," Shirreffs said. "Obviously, it's disappointing, but it's one of those things

that happens with horses. You can't always predict the outcome or what they're

going to do. You just accept it and try to improve."

Shirreffs said Eblouissante had not shown any signs of gate trouble in either of

her first two starts.

"Never, but she's a big horse and the gate is somewhat tight, so she could be a

little claustrophobic," he said. "Who knows what sets a horse off at that

moment? Whatever it was, it really set her off.

"We'll give her a few days to heal up a little bit. Obviously, we're going to

have to take her to the gate and school her, spend a lot of time in the gate and

get over whatever it was that set her off. Then we'll just come back and start

over again."

Shirreffs hopes to get another start for Eblouissante at Saratoga, where the

trainer is spending his first full summer this year.

"We'll look to bring her back probably in a little lower-profile race," he said.

"It's hard to say until we get her back on the track."

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